With Nobel Armada moving to another publisher and Star Fleet under development at Amarillo, will there be a new A Call to Arms setting? Traveller? A new, original setting? Another license? Let Star Fleet be the flag ship brand for a while and wait for a better time? What do you think? What would you prefer?

I hope there's another ACTA space game but it has to be right. To many people are unhappy by the abrupt endings to the previous ones and that breeds mistrust in a company. Why invest time and money in game for it to suddenly disappear?

Perhaps we can help in the basic ideas behind a game? One way to stop a game from premature death is not to have a licence. Use your own ideas/thoughts.

Other areas people might like to comment are:

1. Battleships with or without fighters?
2. Magic or science based?
3. Small fleets or large fleets?

I would highly suggest creating an original background as to retain full control over the game. I really liked the shield mechanics and boarding actions in NA, I wouldn't mind seeing a similar kind of far-future universe built around that.

I think my ideal setup would be one where the fleets have "eras" and starter ships that make a good fleet become support vessels as the "eras" progress, so as you upgrade you move forward in the timeline, but can always play an earlier "era" game. That would give a logical progress to a storyline and maintain a starting point for newbies. And yes, I think an original IP would be best.

I would like to see fighters being part of the game. This would cause ships to have two kinds of weapons; short range interceptors to defend against missiles and fighters and the more powerful main battery to take on other ships.

I'm not a fan of ramming as a tactic. I'm not familiar with modern navy tactics but I'm pretty sure wrecking your ship and killing everyone on board is not near the top. This kind of thing will lead to Pyrrhic victories although in exceptional cases may be allowed.

I like to see the different races/houses roughly at the same tech level although I'm also okay with an uber race such as the Vorlons or Vau. (To become an advance race do you have to change your name to start with an 'V'?) Of course, the cost value for such a race would be high.

Other things I would like to see; mines and mine fields, jump technology instead of warp drives (ships fight at sub light speeds), a strong background, a science base game rather than magic and a machine/AI race could be fun

Might the Reality Tech Storm universe (which Blue Shift is to be a part of) work as a setting for a new version of A Call to Arms?

The first blog entry says that the Nethersky sector (where Blue Shift itself is set) has "no great warships left" there. But that may not preclude the presence of such vessels in other sectors. Or a look back at what kind of space assets the Persephone Defence Alliance had stationed at Nethersky prior to their withdrawal from the region.

(And would the 3D models that currently exist for several fighter types be scalable in order to fit the standard ACtA attrition unit size, or would new models have to be worked up with that smaller scale in mind?)

Kronos wrote:I hope there's another ACTA space game but it has to be right. To many people are unhappy by the abrupt endings to the previous ones and that breeds mistrust in a company. Why invest time and money in game for it to suddenly disappear?

Perhaps we can help in the basic ideas behind a game? One way to stop a game from premature death is not to have a licence. Use your own ideas/thoughts.

Other areas people might like to comment are:

1. Battleships with or without fighters?
2. Magic or science based?
3. Small fleets or large fleets?

Also:
Large fleets are good. One thing I liked about Battlefleet Gothic is that it actually felt like a big fleet engagement (that scenario where you picked your globe/cross/spearhead formation was my favourite for that reason), and the fact that it was quite practical to have two or three cruiser squadrons on the board, plus a flagship and some escorts. Over-detailled games for a handful of ships need to compete with Star Fleet Battles, Star Trek Attack Wing, X Wing, and the (quite healthy) community still playing Babylon 5 wars. I'd far rather see a game where I can realistically use 20+ starships in a single battle, because I've never seen one done properly.

Fighters are nice - but the trick is balancing 'gun deck' ships and carriers (something ACTA B5 never got quite right), or else make everything a carrier. I wonder how much a Wing Commander license would set mongoose back?

Science vs Magic; again, fine with either. I must say I did like the boarding element of Noble Armada, so a setting where this is useable would be nice. I've no inherent objection to something either spelljammer-esque or (a personal favourite) a John Carter*-esque skyships naval game.

* Personally I thought John Carter was a superb film and I don't fully understand why it apparently did so badly.

Understand that I'm not advocating violence.
I'm just saying that it's highly effective and I strongly recommend using it.

locarno24 wrote:
Science vs Magic; again, fine with either. I must say I did like the boarding element of Noble Armada, so a setting where this is useable would be nice. I've no inherent objection to something either spelljammer-esque or (a personal favourite) a John Carter*-esque skyships naval game.

We _have_ considered a Steampunk/Victoriana/flying ship game in the past with A Call to Arms.

Might be something to come back to in 2015 but, for now, we are quite tied up with Dredd and Victory at Sea!

I think an original IP is a better idea, but of I were picking anything I want I'd probably want a B5 resurrection or something based on The Lost Fleet books or Star Control, but those aren't happening. (Remember that Wizkids has a lock on TNG stuff).

lastbesthope wrote:
FFG have the SW licence all tied up. ANd X-Wing is pretty good

LBH

Agreed. It's one of my favourite wargaming things of the last few years.

My only gripe with it (and it's not a gripe, it's just a 'thing') is that it's scaled for a dogfight of 100-200 points; a twelve-element TIE/ln squadron is the biggest game I'd consider playing before the whole thing becomes a bit of a chore. Which means, whilst I can play classic dogfights, and the corvette is now coming into the game, I'm never going to be able to do massive capital ship duels like the battles of Endor (VI) or Coruscant (III).

This is what drives my 'wish list', really; there are no shortage of 'small force' games, and quite a few games which are suited for/only work for two ship or single-duel engagements (I have a copy of the doomsday edition of the SFB rules. How much do I not want to play that game. I thought B5 wars was bad). I've never seen a fleet game which could field ship numbers equivalent to the model count in a 40k or Bolt Action game without really falling over its own mechanics.

Understand that I'm not advocating violence.
I'm just saying that it's highly effective and I strongly recommend using it.

I'll admit to not having seen the latest version, but I think even victory at sea destroyers had multiple hit points each. Certainly a battleship would usually blow them to matchwood, but secondaries would take several shots. Dunno about the newest version.

But yeah, essentially light ships operating in squadrons and being "one-hitted" by incoming fire that got through their defences.

Also, was meaning more a space combat game. Traveller might be interesting (Mongoose is doing 2nd edition books - a Tie-in with 2nd Edition High Guard or Fighting Ships might be sensible); Power Projection is some 10 years old and built on the good-but-paperwork-heavy Full Thrust rules.

Understand that I'm not advocating violence.
I'm just saying that it's highly effective and I strongly recommend using it.